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I've cut the vacuum reservoir out of the front crossmember on my 79. Now I need to tie the two rails together. I'd appreciate some ideas from people who have already been down this road.
I unbolted the vacuum tank and all the heavy metal out of the front end of my 79. I used 3 inch exhaust pipe with welded header Collector flanges on both ends.
I made support brackets to support the nose
I took out the heavy opening head lights. My advice is to use round fixed lights with Le mans plexiglass covers
you don't just need the crossmember. you need the frame horn extensions. https://www.ebay.com/itm/12431998114...wAAOSwe0xdvIDC these bolt to the frame horn and the crossmember goes on the bottom of these. it is too much screwing around. i repeat. put the vacuum tank back.
it is too much screwing around. i repeat. put the vacuum tank back.
Thank you, but NO!
Originally Posted by gkull
I unbolted the vacuum tank and all the heavy metal out of the front end of my 79. I used 3 inch exhaust pipe with welded header Collector flanges on both ends.
I made support brackets to support the nose
I took out the heavy opening head lights. My advice is to use round fixed lights with Le mans plexiglass covers
Any pictures of your setup?
Originally Posted by 69427
How about some 4" aluminum tubing with some flanges on the ends to bolt in between the frame horns?
I thought about making the crossmember out of aluminum, but wanted to see what other people had done before I went down that road.
Last edited by ChrisLSx; May 31, 2021 at 11:08 PM.
I'm not home, but it's like. 250 tempered aluminium. Hard to even drill through. We used it at the race shop io make front and rear motor mounting plates for tube frame cars
It's engineering is pretty good because it has withstood over 200 mph at Bonneville salt flats
until you get something in there, get a jack under the rad support and take up the weight of the nose. it is pulling down and trying to un-bond the nose from the firewall when it sits unsupported.
until you get something in there, get a jack under the rad support and take up the weight of the nose. it is pulling down and trying to un-bond the nose from the firewall when it sits unsupported.
Good luck un-bonding the nose! I had to use a sawsall to just cut straight down each side and reattach the new nose. My front is not stock, but I believe that it uses late C-3 idea of the most forward body mounts ahead of the A-Arms on the frame rail to support the front end.
You also see in the picture that I welded tabs to back of my cross tube for radiator support. My front end is probably 25 - 30 years old and had to be repaired and painted a few times. My front end is actually the 1981 24 hours of Daytona TT front end with thinner fiber glass that took 100's of pounds off the front end. It's how I was able to achieve the highly desirable heavy rear weight bias like the real c-3 Vette GT1 racing cars.
my 75 nose is pretty much de-bonded from the firewall from sitting unsupported a long time. i am probably putting a 71 nose on it so it is not an issue for me,
From: I tend to be leery of any guy who doesn't own a chainsaw or a handgun.
Originally Posted by ChrisLSx
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I thought about making the crossmember out of aluminum, but wanted to see what other people had done before I went down that road.
My stock '69 radiator crossmember is different than your '79 design, but I replaced my heavy crossmember with an aluminum copy years ago. Did the same with the radiator support. Threw on a coat of semi-gloss black paint, and it's almost NCRS compliant.
Edit: Changed support to crossmember for clarity/accuracy.
My stock '69 radiator crossmember is different than your '79 design, but I replaced my heavy support with an aluminum copy years ago. Did the same with the radiator support. Threw on a coat of semi-gloss black paint, and it's almost NCRS compliant.
From: I tend to be leery of any guy who doesn't own a chainsaw or a handgun.
Originally Posted by ChrisLSx
Any pictures/info on how you made it?
Got a picture stored away somewhere. I'll try to find it.
I didn't want my car torn down for an extended time trying to do this project, so a generous fellow Corvette owner loaned me his similar BB radiator support. I used that to build a welding jig around it that contained the shapes and assorted mounting/locating holes and tabs. Then just different thicknesses of aluminum sheet to fill in the voids.
Edit: Here's an ancient picture of my first aluminum welding project, the under radiator crossmember. Nothing fancy, but it allowed me to get my feet wet welding aluminum.
Got a picture stored away somewhere. I'll try to find it.
I didn't want my car torn down for an extended time trying to do this project, so a generous fellow Corvette owner loaned me his similar BB radiator support. I used that to build a welding jig around it that contained the shapes and assorted mounting/locating holes and tabs. Then just different thicknesses of aluminum sheet to fill in the voids.
I'd be very interested to see some pictures if you manage to find them.
Need Ideas - Light Weight Dront Crossmember
